This Recipe has been Triple Tested

This is Vidya aunty’s Mangalorean Prawn Curry recipe. Her son Lakshit happens to be among my closest friends from college and a hellova Chef who makes delicious appams with epic curries at Hoppums Mumbai. But I think his mother is an even better cook because she learnt from her mother, she pours in motherly love in her food and above all, she has her A-Game on in cooking technique.

Mangalorean food is all about the perfect blend of spices. Curries are often coconut based and heavily spiced. Not just chillies, but Mangalorean curries are dominated with a medley of whole spices. This one in particular has three types of chillies along with a medley of spices. There’s no garam masala, but a unique blends of whole spices in the masala that gives a curry a distinctively different flavour. The sweetness of the coconut base and fresh prawns rounds up the loud spices. The texture will be course and the curry is semi thick in consistency. If you get pure whole spices from mangalore too, you’ll be surprised how much better food can taste with good quality spices.

It is one that will make smoke come of your ears, so if you don’t love spicy food then go easy on the quantity of chillies you add. If you love spicy food, you’re in for a treat!

Food journalist, researcher & marketer. Food, to me, is therapy. Let's use superfood and nutritious ingredients to make healthy food fun for our family. If eating well makes you happy, welcome to the family.

On a tava, dry roast coriander seeds, cumin seeds, carom seeds, fenugreek seeds, bedgi chillies, madras chillis on medium heat. Spices will be roasted until they are turn two shades darker in colour and give out the roasted scent.

In a grinder, add freshly grated coconut, tamarind paste, garlic and the roasted spice mixture. Grind this mixture into a smooth paste.

TIP - If you have a grinding stone and know how to grind masala on it, the curry paste will taste much better when ground by hand on a stone. The spice oils are exposed and the flavours are much better and it's a good arm workout!

For Prawn Curry

Wash and clean the prawns. Remove the shell and devein them by slitting straight down its back with a sharp, small knife and pulling out a black vein that runs down the back.

TIP - If the prawns are very fresh, this vein will be thin and almost transparent. If the prawns are stale the vein will be fatter and darker in colour.
If you don't remove this vein it can cause you an upset stomach.

Rub the prawns with turmeric and salt.

Heat a frying pan, add in oil, ginger, green chillies and chopped onion. Saute for one minute until the onions turn translucent to light pink in colour.

TIP - Add salt to cook onions faster.

Add in the curry paste masala to the onions in the pan and cook on medium heat for 7 to 10 minutes. Once cooked, the masala will leave the sides and oil will separate from the masala.

Add two cups of water to the pan and bring the curry to a boil on high heat. Lower the heat and cook again for 5 minutes.

Add the prawns and cook them on medium heat until they curl up and turn white in colour.

Lower the heat and cook again for 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and cover.

Serve hot with steamed rice and popaddums.

Recipe Notes

I have used green chilli, bedgi chillies and madras chillies. Feel free to replace them with variety of chillies available to you, fresh green chilli is for flavour, one variety of dried red chilli for colour and the other for heat.

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Food journalist, researcher & marketer. Food, to me, is therapy. Let's use superfood and nutritious ingredients to make healthy food fun for our family. If eating well makes you happy, welcome to the family.